Tara Clerkin Trio: The ‘Monday Is OK’ Mix

Each of them dabbled in their own musical projects, exploring everything from punk and space rock to electronica and alt folk, before coming together to experiment with new sounds and styles. Echoes of those formative influences still ring through their music but a minimalist approach and experimental framework to creating also sees them float between classical music, jazz, psychedelia and hip hop.

Their self-titled debut album came out a couple of years ago via Laura Lies In, which they followed up with a remix album and an EP last year that veered into avant-pop but retaining their singular free-form approach. Their latest offering is ‘Exquisite Corpse’, a track for SA Recordings’ single series The Hearing Experience, which as a whole invites artists to think about “their relationship with the act of listening”.

With their Monday mix, they usher us in to a new week with a hazy sound bath of soothing vibrations, meditative compositions and twinkling minimalistic melodies. Brew yourself a cuppa and start your Monday right…

Please introduce yourself… Who are you, where are you and what are you

We are Tara Clerki, Sunny Joe Paradiso, and Patrick Benjami. We play together in a band called Tara Clerkin Trio – we live in Bristol in the UK and make music.

What does your music sound like? Can you draw what you think it sounds like for us (an image from the old internet is acceptable)?

Where was the mix recorded?

In Pat’s flat

What would be the ideal setting to listen to the mix?



Monday

What should we be wearing?



Your thinking caps

What would be your dream setting to record a mix: Location/system/format?

On a mountain or the coast or both

Which track in the mix is your current favourite?



Sunny

Ravel – Bolero, always get me juices flowin!

Tara

Funki Porcini – Snip & Lick

Pat

 – Maybe the Sam Gendel one? But I dunno, there’s a lot of good ones in there, and having favourites when it comes to music is hard/limiting.

What’s your favourite recorded mix of all time?

If you could go back to back with any DJ from throughout history, who would it be and why?

I’d go back to back with Bach

What was your first DJ set up at home and what is it now?

Sunny got a tape to tape portable stereo with a built in mic for christmas 1998, Tara recently got some pretty sweet USB decks, Pat has had some shit broken ones for a few years. We mostly do our prerecorded mixes in a DAW, sorry haters

What’s more important, the track you start on or the track you end on?



The journey

What were the first and last records you bought?

Sunny

First: The Rock Show by Blink 182 CD single

Last: Zwei by Heimat

Tara

First: Air – The Virgin Suicides ost

Last: Lolina – Face The Music

Pat

First: Pole and Four Tet’s split EP where they did a track each and remixed each other. I eventually snapped it up a few years ago because I dropped it while mixing on my friend’s decks after a couple of lagers and now it doesn’t work.

Last: James Marrs’ S/T tape

If this mix was an edible thing, what would it taste like?

A cup of tea

If it was an animal what would it be?

A beluga whale possibly in a denim jacket

One record in your collection that is impossible to mix into anything?



That record Pat said about earlier because it’s snapped

Upcoming in the world of Tara Clerkin Trio



We’re working on a bunch of new music and have some various gigs happening soon, including a tour at the end of the year

Anything else we need to discuss?

Yes.